Upcoming events: NJ State Nurses Assn. to honor Ken Wolski, RN with “Don Award” for his medical marijuana advocacy at Bally’s in Atlantic City on 10/24/12. Tickets available at: http://njsna.org/associations/6274/files/DivaDon%20Invite.pdf. NORML NJ meeting October 15th at 7pm at the Ale House, New Brunswick, NJ. Ewing Community Fest 10/6/12, and Lawrence Community Day 10/7/12. ASA v. DEA oral arguments in federal court 10/16 followed by ASA’s 10th Anniversary benefit dinner in D.C. NORML Conference, Los Angeles, 10/4-6/12.

Treasury report: Checking: $3163; PayPal: $3353.

CMMNJ meetings are the second Tuesday of each month from 7 - 9 PM at the Lawrence Twp. Library, 2751 Brunswick Pike, Lawrence Twp., Tel. #609.882.9246. All are welcome. (Meeting at the library does not imply their endorsement of our issue.) For more info, contact:

Diane Riportella, medical marijuana advocate and an ALS patient, died 8/31/12 at age 56.
Jim Miller is hospitalized on and off following an accident requiring multiple surgeries.
Frank Fulbrook was hospitalized following lung surgery. He hopes to return Oct./Nov.

Patients are registering for ID cards with DOH; they are encountering multiple problems with doctors. See Vanessa Waltz’s survey of registered NJ doctors: NJ DOCTORS STRUGGLE WITH COMPLEX MARIJUANA REGULATIONS. Reggie Miller, V.P. of marijuanadoctors.com (860.967.8370) discussed his organization and said he has 4000 NJ patients registered and needs doctors.

ATC update: Rumors that Greenleaf ATC in Montclair will open this month; Compassionate Care Foundation in Egg Harbor will open in the fall; Compassionate Care Centers of America Foundation will open on Rt. 1 in Woodbridge in the near future.

Trenton – A report issued today by CMMNJ found that physicians registered to participate in the state Medicinal Marijuana Program (MMP) struggled with the initial launch of the registry for qualifying patients.

New Jersey operates the only medical cannabis program in the country that requires physicians to join a special registry to recommend marijuana. Seriously ill residents must have a “bona fide” relationship with one of the few registered doctors to apply to the DOH for their own registry card.

CMMNJ Board Member and cancer patient Vanessa Waltz called all of the 148 doctors listed on the NJ Department of Health website and reached 99.

- 46 offices reported that they were actively accepting new patients interested in the program
- 30 offices reported that they were not currently accepting new patients but may in the future
- 23 offices reported that they were registered but were not currently participating in the MMP

The conversations with practice managers and physicians revealed that residents who qualify for the MMP face new and significant barriers to safe cannabis access.

From the report: “Offices reported that there has been no communication initiated by the state in terms of: How the program works; how the patient registration process works; that the physician registry would be published online; that the patient registry was opening; alerts to any changes in guidelines on the DOH informational website.”

CMMNJ has already been on record appealing to the NJ DOH and the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners to take a comprehensive approach to educate NJ physicians about cannabis. Now communication between DOH and the handful of doctors willing to participate in the MMP registry seems to have broken down.

The report continues: “The NJ DOH and the MMP official are not communicating with physicians. Participating doctors did not receive notice when patient registry was opened, and only found out when their phones started ringing or saw it on the news. The DOH has failed in providing doctors with information including clear educational materials, guidelines, and updates. Phone calls and emails from offices are not being returned.”

The final conclusion from CMMNJ: “The logical solution to this problem for patients is to amend the MMP regulations immediately to remove all provisions related to the physician registry.”

Respectfully, I disagree with your assertion that because only 240 people have registered for the Medical Marijuana program that the sponsors of the legislation have embellished on the demand (http://nj1015.com/chris-christie-says-medical-marijuana-delay-not-his-fault-audio/). ; The fact is, Governor, that there were more than 240 people interested in a fair shot to open Alternative Treatment Centers who attended the public hearings on your regulations. I personally spoke to more than 240 people across The Garden State who were interested in putting their hard-earned money into such a legal and viable establishment.

There are more than 240 people, working class adults with children, in my township of Livingston who would sign up for an accessible Medical Marijuana Card that would protect them and their families from the long arm of the law.

The fact is, Governor, that the law was written broadly, and by your own admission, the regulations have rewritten the law. The regulations were designed to set up a system that fails and only by that measure is this program succeeding spectacularly.

This is no different than how you handled the marriage equality issue, Governor... setting up roadblocks to avoid a law that would conflict with your ideologies and national Republican dogma and ambitions, and, the funny thing, Governor, is that in the process we had completely sold out our core Republican free-market principles. Under your governorship, you have led the expansion of gambling and beer breweries. The Advocates who bravely came out of the closet and fought for and won their Compassionate Use law freely and fairly based solely on the morality of their arguments and without any money to back them up, have met with a Republican government that has ignored public commentary and shut down the public's interests completely and totally in a new line of business that some politicians had to control. How powerful the State has become. How embarrassing for us long-time Republicans who actually believed in our mantra of a smaller, more-efficient, less-intrusive government.

I saw in the news the other day that the Police got a 28-year old with pounds of marijuana and $300,000 in cash (http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2012/09/300g_found_in_alleged_drug_dea.html). ; There are legions of good law-abiding folks across the Garden State who could have put the cash generated by their legal Alternative Treatment Centers to good work, with real jobs that people are passionate about. What a waste of time and effort (As an aside, it is tough raising kids even at our age. I'd have to walk a mile in the shoes of a 28-year-old with a four-year-old son before I sat in judgment of the choices that he had made. I don't suppose he will get any credit for having chosen Life?!?).

Dearest Governor, we come to you with our heads down and our hands extended in friendship. Even if we cannot competently compete in the legal commerce of this new industry, will the State please provide patients with an avenue of access to safe and effective medicine (as defined by law, despite your aversion)? Even if the State cannot uphold the law and make safe and effective medicine available to patients, can citizens of The Garden State please be afforded refuge from the long-arm of the law by consulting with their very real physicians with respect to their marijuana use and reasonably obtaining Medical Marijuana Cards?

Governor Christie, you are so powerful, and we, we are so meek. How may we, the Good People of The Garden State, serve you so that we may avail ourselves to the law and reverse this long, slow, and painful train wreck of your Medical Marijuana Program?

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Ken and Jim at Redbank Fundraiser

About The Coalition

Coalition members hold diverse opinions, but we all agree:

Arresting patients is wrong, and it must stop now.

Modern clinical research, centuries of experience and the impassioned personal accounts of thousands of real patients concur: Marijuana can alleviate symptoms of certain serious medical conditions, and it can do so when other drugs fail to help.

Doctors should be free to recommend this medicine to promote health, and sick or injured New Jerseyans should be free to use it responsibly.

The safety margin for therapeutic marijuana is as wide as it can be ─there is no known lethal dose.

New Jersey healthcare professionals dispense potentially lethal drugs every day. We trust them to do so very carefully, and solely to benefit their patients. Common sense and compassion demand that doctors should control non-lethal marijuana medicine for those who truly need it. To make this important change a reality, your voice is needed.

The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act was introduced in the State Senate in January 2005 by Senator Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden). A companion bill is pending in the Assembly, sponsored by Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton) and Assemblyman Michael Carroll (R-Morris Township).